The Cosmic Career Coach

Dear Cosmic Career Coach,

I recently gave notice at a company I have worked at for three years. It's a great job and the people are wonderful, but I took a new position because I will make more money and the benefits are better. My old company, who previously told me they couldn't pay me any more than they do, suddenly found the extra cash and made a counter offer. I am a Libra and decisions are very difficult for me. I have already accepted the new job but wonder if I should stay at my old job since they have offered a better salary? Why couldn't they have simply paid me what I was worth all along? I feel torn between my old company and the commitment I have made to the new.

—Feeling Foolish in Florida

Dear Foolish,

Lucky Libra, good relationships are your blessing and your curse. Some people might resign from a job for higher pay elsewhere only to see their employers shrug, light a few candles on a cake, and wish you a fond farewell from the coffee room. Your company values you so much that they found the money you felt you deserved all along. But—and here's the caveat—they found it rather late in the proceedings.

Your astrologer is of two minds on how to proceed, depending on some key information you didn't provide her.

Did you tell your company you were considering leaving for more money before you accepted the new outside position? If you, and they did not come up with the money until after you'd accepted the outside position, I'd say go with the new job. The reason: Your employer has put you in an awkward position, and this scenario may repeat itself in the future. Why play brinksmanship with a valuable employee such as yourself?

If you didn't tell your company you were considering leaving for more money, and simply resigned and cited money as your reason for departing, you might benefit from staying. In this case, you didn't communicate your need for more pay, and thus the time lag in your employer upping the ante is forgivable. And who knows what the new job will be like? If your current employer will increase your pay for work you're already happy to do, what do you have to gain by leaving, compared to what you may lose?

Famous Libras: Will Smith, Donna Karan, Kate Winslet

Hot Careers for Libra

• Human Resources
• Interior Design
• Teaching

Dear Cosmic Career Coach,

I work for a small company where we all work in a large common space. One employee is constantly sick but refuses to stay home. Consequently, the rest of us always risk catching his colds or touching the common, germ-laden surfaces in the office. I'm an Aries and this irks me—in fact, his disrespectful behavior really infuriates me. No one (including the boss) seems willing to approach him, but I am just about at my wit's end. How do I handle such thoughtlessness without alienating him or hurting my reputation? Despite his illnesses, he's our top salesperson.

—Ailing Aries in Alaska

Dear AAA,

When you get sick, dear Aries, you are not a pleasant camper. You want your tomato soup hot, your grilled cheese just so, your Kleenex and the remote set up within a small radius. And that contagious dude in the office? You want him fired.

If you want the higher-ups to take your concerns about your colleague's health seriously, you have to do that un-Aries thing and de-personalize the conversation around the topic. Rather than talk about how he makes you sick, too, you need to talk about how his illness could jeopardize the business by lowering productivity, reducing profits, or creating distractions. If you can discuss your concerns in a way that sounds like the company's, you'll be sure to get more attention for your cause.

You could tell negligent higher-ups that this top producer seems to be sick often, urging them to imagine how much more he could sell if he went home and recovered for once. In fact, maybe to keep others from catching his perma-flu, this big seller could telecommute. Letting him do that, and making his desk a "floating" space would mean the company could make new hires or use temps at times without needing a new cube (while assuring he'd never infect you again.

Another approach: Tell the brass that you all work hard, even through sickness, and that's why the company ought to put that hospital-style antiseptic lotion at every sink and near every table. You, for one, could tell the company what your daily revenue contribution is—and then show them how often you were sick last year, to prove your point that illness infects the bottom line.

Will this dialogue make a difference? It's hard to say. But you won't hurt your reputation by putting your case for change in the company's best interests.

Famous Aries: Conan O'Brien, Fergie, Ewan McGregor

Hot Careers for Aries

• Management
• Computer Programming
• Nursing

About Jane Hodges, The Cosmic Career Coach Jane Hodges is a Seattle-based business writer. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, The Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine and many other publications. When she's not reporting on real estate or big business, she writes the "Seeing Stars" astrology column for Southwest Airlines' magazine, Spirit. She is also the author of Cosmic Grooves, a music and astrology book series (Chronicle Books/Rhino Records, 2001).